Another view + Trees and forests | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/series/another-view+environment/forests
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Another view: Ecologist Sue Hartley on The Happeninghttp://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/jun/24/endangeredhabitats
Ecologist Sue Hartley on The Happening<p>In The Happening, nature strikes back at mankind by releasing a toxin from trees that causes people to commit suicide. Plants release a great number of volatile compounds. If you walk through a pine forest, or sniff herbs, you're smelling them. And we've known for a long time that there are mind-altering substances in plants such as cannabis and the peyote cactus, but these are not airborne - or at least not until you smoke the cannabis.</p><p>The Happening suggests, correctly, that vegetation can react to attack. For instance, there are some plants that protect themselves from herbivores trying to eat them by releasing volatile compounds to attract wasps - which then attack the herbivores. And some plants communicate with their neighbours. Alder trees have a kind of early warning system: the compounds they release when damaged by herbivores signal nearby trees to turn on their own natural defences.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/jun/24/endangeredhabitats">Continue reading...</a>Endangered habitatsTrees and forestsConservationEnvironmentFilmPlantsScienceCultureScience fiction and fantasyBiologyMon, 23 Jun 2008 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/jun/24/endangeredhabitatsSue Hartley2008-06-23T23:01:00Z